“Tell us now if you are going to remove all the government initiatives you call freebies, like free education.”
Education Minister Premila Kumar asked this to the Opposition and other political parties during debate on the 2022-2023 budget in Parliament on Monday.
She said relief measures which the Opposition termed “freebies” or “handouts” was insulting to people facing difficulties.
“Whenever the Government provides assistance to our people, the Opposition panics and calls it freebies and handouts because posturing is more important to them than actually helping the people they pretend they are speaking for,” Mrs Kumar said.
“In fact, the term ‘freebies’ or ‘handouts’ and the insinuation is quite disgusting. The People’s Alliance party (PA), National Federation Party (NFP), Unity Fiji and SODELPA and other critics should honestly tell us now if they are going to remove all these things they call ‘freebies’ — tell the nation and let the nation know.”
